You can even play Games on it, who would have thought. And it has not added a single pence to my credit card. But I still don’t have the the ‘Google Market’ even though the calendar, contacts and Gmail still sync up with Google.

I have been having discussions all over the net about smartphones and feature phones and the vast marketplace for non smartphones in the third world. A market that Nokia is big in, but is not well supported with things like facebook, Twitter and other social networking communications features, due, in part to the lack of more robust networks in those areas. Even during a discussion at yesterdays Cork Open Coffee the subject of community services came up and I was reminded of a New Beta from Nokia called Nokia Listings ( here, here, here. and here ) which is intended to support communications, operating within a weak infrastructure, in a social networking type of framework.

This thought has come to mind as there are many voices out there who have commented on the iPad’s ‘virtual Keyboard‘. Many have found it hard to type on and found themselves unable to touch type on it as the very nature of touch sensitivity makes it impossible make contact with the ‘keys’. In other words, you can’t type long missives, emails or any other textual input.

What if the iPad is a form of Censorship? Making it hard to comment on the internet, create content, write Twitters/email/Blogs whatever. Because the keyboard it too hard and frustrating to enter anything other than simple search phrases. A consumer ONLY device, made to fill the passive vessels that constitutes the bulk of the internet readership? Content omnivores as Pew Research calls them, an advertising and News consuming only population.

And a thought came to mind that what Irelands ‘Smart Economy’ ought to be, is to create a genuine open internet connection to the world. An Internet free of ALL censorship, blocking, filtering and snooping both into and out to the rest of the internet. Even so much as establishing free VPN connections into the country for people living in internet ‘oppressed’ world areas thus giving an open gateway into a free, and (as) open as anyone could make, Internet. It would not prevent countries from blocking export of banned information into Ireland, but Ireland would not add any blockages. And it would not prevent information from Ireland into censored countries. but it would create a cloud of truly free internet.

I think this could foster an internet ‘Switzerland’ much like Switzerland is to banking. Businesses like Google, Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Skype would find this an attractive country to expand and centralize in. It would make Ireland an Internet sanctuary for complete and open exchange of ideas and communications.

I’ve had my Nokia N900 for almost 48 hours, and while I’ve have a few frustrations, I’m equally satisfied with the product. And so to keep it geeky and simple:

I’ve logged into the device (not really a phone) with SSH from my desktop. And it just looks like a standard Linux system.

I’ve logged in to my Opensolaris from the device shell (X Terminal) with SSH and that works like normal.

I’ve connect to the VLC server on my server, with VLC, from the device, and while the navigation of the screen size differences will be ‘fun’, it works as expected

I’ve Blogged from the device using MaStory.

I’ve sent SMS and received SMS’s, I received Phone calls. (gee)

I’ve been fetching emails, full html support (must turn off images)

I’ve found my location with GPS.

I’ve loaded up some songs, and they sound great with the stereo speakers

I’ve listened to internet radio, that works great.

I’ve used the keyboard, and I’m getting faster the more I use it.

I’ve browsed the internet, and it’s amazing, although my blog identifies it as a PDA (must fix that)

I’ve used the device to diagnose a neighbors laptop WiFi connection

I’ve taken a photo, not so great on the first try, no image stabilization, but relatively sharp

I’ve managed to post a photo to my Flickr account.

I’ve synced up my calendar and contacts with my Nokia 6300 backup using the Nokia PC suite (as OVI suite does not work)

I’ve connected to AOL and Yahoo IM with the Pidgin application.

However there is another list, of frustrations;

Battery life really sucks, mostly because I’ve had everything turned on (default) and have not found all the places to ‘tune’ them to better setting.

I can NOT get the Twitter application Mauku to connect to Twitter

I can NOT get the weather with OMWeather it won’t connect

I couldn’t get the MaxRoam SIM to dial anyone, though I could SMS

Some Apps from the App Manager WILL NOT DOWNLOAD no matter what I do, and there no indication about why they won’t download

I can’t get the FaceBook application which came pre-installed, to actually install, or function. It’s the same with several of the ‘pre-installed’ apps, they just don’t work without being ‘installed’ and they won’t install.

I am currently using a Vodafone Pay-as-you-Go SIM and it does indicate that I am connected with 3G. I have NOT tested it for dataroaming, or performance. The MaxRoam SIM did indicate that I was connected to a 3.5G O2 network But like I mentioned, I couldn’t call anyone, only SMS. I assume that it was my ignorance of setting for the MaxRoam SIM.

As for the phone itself, I like it, it’s a bit heaver than I thought, but a great deal smaller, it is not really any wider or taller than a Samsung Tocco Lite, but it’s almost twice as thick.

The keyboard is very small and not really thumb friendly, I started out using my fingernails to type. Now I can feel the contours of the keys, it sped up my typing a bit. I have a clear snap on case I bought from Amazon a month ago, but the screen section obscures the upper row on the keyboard, so I don’t have it on, so just the back is attached.

The resistive touchscreen is very sensitive. I have a Palm T/X and I know! It is nothing like the resistive screens of the past. There is virtual NO give to the surface, and while you can tell that it is ‘softer’ than a capacitive touchscreen, it has a great deal more precision. Just try and draw something in the ‘sketch’ app or better yet, the XJournal application.

Overall I could say that it’s a keeper, a Geeky keeper, and looks like it will be a learned love. It does do what I need it to do, be a computed device, with a phone in it.

I’m sure there will be other revelations, but I may be too busy playing with my new toy.

UPDATE : I’ve managed to get the missing FaceBook App to install and Mauku and OMWeather are working after I changed some of the connection setting on device to fixed ip addresses on my WiFi router.

With everyone twitting about the weather conditions in Ireland lately, I created a weather twitter account that will save anything you twit to it with @abouttheweather and will keep them in a Weather category at Idea Forecasting

I find it amusing that after I submitted my sites to the Social Media Award section of The Irish Web Awards none of them has even been visited. Rejected before even viewing them. That either is an indication, that your efforts are not worthy of examination, or that you are not acceptable. While none of my sites has ‘hit the big time’ it’s not a precursor to exclusion.

I’ve been engaged in a discussion on facebook on a subject proposed by Bernard Goldbach. The subject has shifted a bit into what ‘marketing’ is. Or more so perhaps to what discussions in a public forum are. It’s also the basis of why the Delphi Method and my Idea Forecasting project are so important. But the only way I can illustrate this is like a 3 year old would do, with the ‘Why’ drill down to find the basic question. So here is my attempt;

Why do you blog, or post on any public forum?

To participate in the dusscussion.

(good, nobel thought. ed)

Why?

Well I think it’s a good disscusion.

Why?

Well I think I have some thoughts on the idea which I wish to contribute.

Why?

Well I think my Ideas are good.

Why?

Well I’ve had these experiences which have taught me a lot, and I think everyone should hear them.

Why?

Well I think everyone should know them, they can learn from them as well.

Why?

because they are important

Why?

because they are great ideas.

Why?

etc ad nauseam …

They are personal, you deem them valuable, and wish to give (read sell, promote, peddle) them to others.

The Delphi Method is a way to remove the ‘Personal‘ the Ego from the the Idea. The idea, and the discussion is on the merits of the Idea, and the comments, not on the personality, or the need of the individual to promote that Idea.

I’ve been browsing the Twitterverse for anyone discussing ‘Ideas’ or Forecasting and I’ve started following them using the @ideaforecasting twitter account. I’m hoping to stimulate some interest, or at least some hits on the ideaforecasting.com site. We’ll see. My expectations are high, but I’m not deluding myself, there may be no reaction. I believe that it may be true that any marketing solely dependent on Twitter, will fail. I’ll followup on this by blogging this over time.

In the area of advertising, outside of posting nude pictures of celebrities and offering Free Beer I’m out of my league. When I talked about my new projects to the Open Coffee Cork gang, I got what I thought was pleasant interest. But outside of the amusing use of my @querynetTwitterBot asking about jaegerbombs, no one else bothered to visit my projects.

My current project, query-the.net now has a prototype, but you don’t have to visit the website, which is more or less a placeholder. Instead, use your favorite Twitter client and direct a question at @querynet {and a question} and wait for a reply. You should (assuming it’s working) get a Twitter response to your query. It’s currently only sending responses every 15 minutes so don’t expect an instant response. Let me know what you think.

I must look like I’m out to buy up all the free domains in the internet, now I possess the mighty domain query-the.net! Now what to do with it, not a problem, I just have to make it happen. I hope I’m up to it.

I posted my latest fabulous project Fleeting Thoughts and no one read it. In fact, no one clicked on it, and no one commented either. The only conclusion is that either the project is rubbish, or because I’m a cranky old Blogger, with no friends. Obviously the latter, as the idea is fantastic ( if poorly executed by me), it now comes as no surprise to me, the cranky old Blogger, that social networks don’t support the cranky behavior, of cranky old Bloggers!

You have to be ‘Social’

So, if you are doing social ‘things’ on the internet, like Twitter applications, be sociable, have lots of followers, who also have lots of followers, who like to Re-Twit!

Fleeting Thoughts is a Twitter related application. The basic concept is that most Twitters are temporal and transitory communications. But the thought came to me that some of your twitters might best be preserved, bookmarked, in a way that you can retrieve them. So the basic Idea of Fleeting Thoughts is that if you add @fleetthoughts to any tweet, either as a reply, or added to a re-tweet that ‘thought’ will be captured and saved on the site http://fleetingthoght.com (yup, misspelled) and sorted by owner, where they can be viewed latter. The can even be commented on by either the owner, of other visitors.